Carbohydrate Type of Food The Prolonged Endurance

Question: Discuss about theCarbohydrate Type of Foodfor the Prolonged Endurance. Answer: Nutrition and Hydration One of the major reasons for the win of professional cyclist is that they have strong legs and for that purpose, it can be stated that both food and drink plays one of the major roles for gaining chances of success. From the details, it can be easily said that being hydrated is the most important factor that decides the prolonged endurance of the event. After that comes eat up step, where it is said that the athlete needs to consume sufficient amount of nutrients like carbohydrates, before and after doing any kind of exercises. Gilbert (2013) has stated that it is only by the means of consuming carbohydrate type of food; one can regain the lost amount of glycogen in the blood that shall ultimately help to overcome the fatigue of the person. From the news and published reports, it can be found that in order support optimum performance of an athlete over the duration of the three week tour, the rider needs to consume heavy amount of water to meet the high energy demand. It is when the riders shall be able to meet the support of muscle recovery. On waking, the riders often consume a juice drink and this provides them with a host of nutrients and energy. Apart from that, they have breakfast like porridge, eggs, yogurt, bread, jam and some others. However, there is an option of rice and pasta as well for the riders (Amin 2013). Training Program It can be stated that in order to perform at the Tour de France, it is important for a professional cyclist to understand the minimum requirement and thus they need to undergo some proper training. From the published news, the training plan made for the particular athlete should reflect the psychological demand of the person and the event as well (Van Reeth 2013). The long three week Grant tour was highly challenging for an athlete because the duration of the complete journey of race is a long way. In addition to this, there also arise certain stages where the athelets have to climb and perform certain rides on the front of the peloton. Further, it has also been found that at times, sprinting is also required for energizing the athlete. It is on the basis of the power gained by the athlete, the person shall be able to reach the closing gap. At last, potentiality to recover quickly between stages is highly crucial (Wheatcroft 2013). At the end, it can be stated that the ultimate piece of the puzzle is tapering, where it is expected that the training volume shall be reduced, most of the times by up to 40% to 50% in the 7 to 14 days each race (Marijon et al. 2013). Energy System Interplay It can be found that at the time of cycling, particularly while racing, a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic energy is used in order to create speed of the day. It can be found that at the time of sprinting hard to abolish the gap in a road race or powering up a steep climb on a dirt trail, the rider tap on both anaerobic and aerobic metabolism for completing the task (Prinz and Wicker 2012). However, it can be seen that most of the times the riders work aerobically in this case. Below, a table has been mentioned for training specific energy systems and this would portray a proper picture of the scenario (Rogge et al. 2013). Training specific energy systems Percentage of maximum power Primary energy system stressed Typical exercise duration for a cyclist Primary Muscle Fibers/ energy type targeted 90-100 Phosphagen 3-10 Seconds Type II A Anaerobic 75-90 Fast Glycolysis 10-20 seconds Type II B Particularly Anaerobic 30-75 Fast Glycolysis and oxidative 10 seconds to 20 minutes Type II B and Type I, both aerobic and anaerobic 20-35 Oxidative 20 minutes Type I, that is generally aerobic Energy system 1 is ATP-PC and if one to watch this energy system, then it can be advised to keep a watch on Marks Cavendishs burst, before the finishing line, right at final 200 m (Lamont and McKay 2012). Energy system 2 is anaerobic glycolysis and the anaerobic glycolysis reaction tends to produce lactate, which is the base of lactic acid. At the time of high effort from the part of the athlete, greater amount of lactate is produced that needs to be removed (Fotheringham 2012). Energy system 3 is aerobic metabolism. It can be stated that a 75 kg weighing rider with approximately 15% body fat, has about 11.25 kg of stored fats that represent 101,250 calories of energy potential. In case, if a rider tries to use all these energy, there is a great possibility of the riders death. There is a less possibility of accessing the stored fuel that is required during several processes like cycling, proving the fact that the intensity of the rider is low (Fotheringham 2012). Fatigue Lamont and McKay (2012) have stated that as a performer continues, there is a chance that their body would start to fatigue as a reason for the lack of oxygen that is required for working of the muscles. Therefore, it is understood that this leads to a large number of issues for the performer, as this reduces muscle strength, reduce in speed and co-ordination, reduction in reaction time as well is observed. After this part, it can be stated that fatigue affects the performance of the athletes, as their concentration levels would decrease and they might make some mistakes in judgments. There are two types of fatigues, metal and physical and any athlete can be affected by any or both of these two. It can be stated that while tired, muscles can easily recover by rest and the brain can only recover with sleep. Therefore, proper sleep is essential to deal with fatigue and environmental conditions as well leave impact at this point (Lamont and McKay 2012). Somatotype Presently, Tour de France is conducted over 21 days and the athletes are required to finish 3500 kilometers of some hardest roads of Spain. Therefore, it is regardless to mention that the athletes are required overcoming severe mental and physical fatigue for maintaining speeds of more than 60km/hr for the last 5 to 10 kilometers of racing. They must be physically fit enough, otherwise it would be tough for them to sustain in the long-run (Lamont and McKay 2012). In this part, it is necessary to mention that might be the most demanding stage within the entire tour are those that travel over some of Europes grueling mountain passes and for them, climbing is the most necessary part. References Amin, D., 2013. Tour de France. Fotheringham, W., 2012.Roule Britannia: Great Britain and the Tour de France. Random House. Gilbert, G., 2013.Tour de France. AV2 by Weigl. Lamont, M. and McKay, J., 2012. Intimations of postmodernity in sports tourism at the Tour de France.Journal of Sport Tourism,17(4), pp.313-331. Marijon, E., Tafflet, M., Antero-Jacquemin, J., El Helou, N., Berthelot, G., Celermajer, D.S., Bougouin, W., Combes, N., Hermine, O., Empana, J.P. and Rey, G., 2013. Mortality of French participants in the Tour de France (19472012).European heart journal, p.eht347. Prinz, J. and Wicker, P., 2012. Team and individual performance in the Tour de France.Team Performance Management: An International Journal,18(7/8), pp.418-432. Rogge, N., Van Reeth, D. and Van Puyenbroeck, T., 2013. Performance evaluation of Tour de France cycling teams using data envelopment analysis.International Journal of Sport Finance,8(3), p.236. Van Reeth, D., 2013. TV demand for the Tour de France: the importance of stage characteristics versus outcome uncertainty, patriotism, and doping.International Journal of Sport Finance,8(1), p.39. Wheatcroft, G., 2013.Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France. Simon and Schuster.